Credit Reports (Free)

[DAA]

I can't stress the importance of knowing just what your "individual" Credit Score is!!!  This kind of information serves many purposes and to know this, is especially important if you are posted and need to obtain a mortgage or you're an applicant to the CF being asked questions about your financial history or just the average person who suddenly finds themself with a Credit Card or Line of Credit (LoC) that for unexplained reasons, your card of LoC no longer works when you try to use it!!!  And heaven forbid, identity fraud.

This information is available upon request, once per year   and is FREE!!!  Here are the links to download the forms and send in your request......you may be surprised at what you find!!!

Equifax Canada - http://www.equifax.com/ecm/canada/EFXCreditReportRequestForm.pdf

TransUnion Canada - http://www.transunion.ca/docs/personal/Consumer_Disclosure_Request_Form_en.pdf

I have "personally" been subject to erroneous credit reporting on two occasions now (1995 and 2012) but because I ask for these reports annually, the problem is resolved very quickly.  The most recent which happened in Oct 12 was Credit Card Fraud, brought to my attention by RBC as they contacted me.  The result being my card was cancelled and a new card was issued.  But when I got my Credit Reports in Feb this year, which I do annually, both Equifax and TransUnion reported me as being "delinquent" in payments on the card that was cancelled by RBC due to fraud.

It happens, but thankfully my problem was resolved very quickly, only because I ask for my reports annually!

Edit - THANKS to occam for expanding on this post below!!! 

 

[Occam]

Good advice, but a couple of things come to mind:

1.  In Canada, you can obtain as many reports per year as you like - you're not restricted to one report per year.  One is probably sufficient for most people, but if you do a lot of business with credit cards and travel a lot, more frequent reports might be a good idea.

2.  It's free to obtain your credit reports by mail (or online, if you provide a credit card for identification purposes - no charge is made to the card).  However, to obtain your FICO credit score, you'll have to pay a fee.

3.  To be entirely clear, Equifax and TransUnion are just reporting agencies.  If you find discrepancies in the report, you have to take up the matter with the institution who made the inaccurate report to the reporting agency.  However, Equifax/TransUnion will assist in the process.

 

[Leeema]

This is great DAA, thanks. For some reason I thought obtaining credit reports were looked down upon. I've had a credit card company send me a new card without telling me why until I called them. This should be helpful to some applicants as you've pointed out in another thread.

 

[Occam]

For some reason I thought obtaining credit reports were looked down upon.

The consumer requesting a copy of their own credit report does not affect their credit rating.  However, if you start going from lender to lender inquiring about credit, and they all start pulling down your credit file, that will have an adverse effect on your credit rating.